State Rep. David Hillman of Almyra on Tuesday announced his switch to the Republican Party after being re-elected earlier this month to his third term as a Democrat, solidifying the GOP's "supermajority" control of Arkansas' lower chamber.
Republicans picked up nine seats in the 100-member House on Election Day and then padded their lead the next day when former Democratic Rep. Jeff Wardlaw of Hermitage announced his party switch.
With Hillman's announcement, Republicans now control 75 seats in the House and have the three-fourths majority needed to pass appropriations bills without any support from Democrats. The next regular session starts Jan. 9.
The Republicans narrowly missed having a supermajority in the Senate, where they control 2̶4̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶3̶5 26 of the 35 seats* after picking up two on Nov. 8. They need one more for a supermajority of 27.
"After much prayer, thought, and consultation (and a few sleepless nights) in order to better represent the changing political views of the people in our district, I have decided to change my party affiliation to Republican," Hillman said in a statement.
A farmer and former president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, Hillman's 13th District jags from the unincorporated community of Tichnor in Arkansas County to outside Augusta, the home of Democratic House Minority Leader Michael John Gray.
In a statement Tuesday, Gray called Hillman a friend and wished him luck. Gray added that he would seek a Democrat to challenge Hillman in 2018.
According to unofficial election results, the four eastern Arkansas counties that contain parts of District 13 heavily supported Republican Donald Trump by at least 30 percentage points. Hillman said the election, in which he ran unopposed, did not affect his decision to switch parties.
"I think it bears out why that was a good decision," Hillman said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Hillman said that, as a member of the majority party, he would be better able to serve his constituents, and he doubted that his new affiliation would change his voting record.
"Whether I'm a Democrat or a Republican is not going to change the way I vote," Hillman said. "I voted more conservative than some of the people you think of as Republican conservatives."
Declining to point to any specific votes within his record, Hillman said that no single issue led to his decision to switch parties.
Last year, Hillman voted with Democrats and many Republicans to continue Arkansas' private-option Medicaid expansion. In 2013, Hillman voted to ban abortions in which a fetal heartbeat is detected but later cast a vote against the successful override of a veto by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, online legislative records show.
According to legislative "scorecards" by both left- and right-leaning groups, Hillman was one of the most conservative Democrats in the House during the 2015 regular session.
House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said he appreciated working with Hillman as a "thoughtful legislator," adding that he expected Hillman to take the same approach as a Republican.
The development of a Republican supermajority returns a level of partisan makeup that was common during the state's Democratic past. Less than a decade ago, during the 86th General Assembly, Democrats held a supermajority in the House with exactly 75 seats.
While it's unlikely Democrats could block legislation on the House floor, Gillam said individual Democrats still will have opportunities to offer proposals and make their arguments heard.
"The relationships with their colleagues across the aisle will drive things rather than a group effort, so to speak," Gillam said. "If as a minority party they decide to be obstructionist just for the sake of being obstructionist, this prevents that."
Reached by phone, Gray said Democrats would not change legislative plans for the regular session.
"I think there will be times when those 75 votes are not necessarily all Republican, when the 25 opposition votes are not all Democrat," Gray said.
Gillam said he is not expecting any more House members to switch parties.
Metro on 11/23/2016
*CORRECTION: Republicans will control 26 of 35 seats in the Arkansas Senate once new members take office in January. They will be one seat shy of obtaining a three-fourths “supermajority” of 27. An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Senate Republicans in the 91st General Assembly.